Major funding pbs newshour has provided by let me talk about your investments. Audrey is expecting. Twins. Grandparents. We want put to put summing aside for them. Change in plans. Change in plans. Mom, are you painting again . You could sell these. Let me guess change in plans . At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. Consumecellular. Johnson and johnson. Financial Services Firm raymond james. Bnsf railway. The candida fund, committed to advancing Restorative Justice and leading the world through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. More at candidafund. Org. Carnegie corporation of new york , supporting investments in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security at carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Judy the surge of covid infections and illness is pushing much of the country to its worst point since the pandemic began. More than 100,000 people are hospitalized nearly double the highest point of the spring. The u. S. Has had a total so far of 14 million cases out of 65 million around the world. Thats more than any other nation on earth. And four million of them in the u. S. Over just the past month. Deaths are also climbing. More than 2800 were reported yesterday alone, again a singleday record. The death toll overall has now passed 275,000. Doctor robert redfield, the director of the centers for disease control, warned in an appearance with the u. S. Chamber of commerce yesterday that the winter could be even worse. Dr. Redfield the reality is december and january and february are going to be rough times. I actually believe theyre going to be the most difficult time in the Public Health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that its going to put on our Health Care System. The mortality concerns are real, and i do think unfortunately before we see february, we could be close to 450,000 americans have died from this virus, but you know thats not a fait accompli. Judy dr. Redfield said masks, social distancing, and other precautions by the public could help prevent the very worst projections. In an interview today on cnn, president elect biden said he will call at his inauguration for everyone to wear masks during the next 100 days. The growing covid caseload around the u. S. Is putting an enormous strain on hospitals and health care workers. Lets hear more from doctor amy comptonphillips, executive Vice President and chief clinical officer of providence, a Health Care System operating 51 hospitals and more than 1000 clinics in texas, alaska, and five more states across the western u. S. Dr. Compton phillips, thank you for being with us. What kind of services do you provide and what are you saying in your facilities . Dr. Comptonphillips we provide a wide range of any service you need in health care. We have everything from primary care Office Visits through acute care visualizations through rehab afterward. We are seeing what the rest of the country is seen, and that is a huge uptick in people who have acquired the infection, and a couple of weeks after, they ask for heth care. Our icus, our hospitals are filling up rapidly on people who need acute care from this very dangerous germ. Judy do you have adequate space . How are you dealing with the space issue, first of all, bed space . Dr. Comptonphillips the physical bed space is probably the easiest part to solve because we have been able to work on that for 10 months. We have figured out how to get more and more patients him, how to convert leftover storage rooms into storage rooms into negative pressure rooms. We can solve the space. The thing that is harder to solve for because of the broad base of the pandemic right now across the country is the people to operate those newly added beds. We dont have the icu staff, the skilled nurses, the equipment, people who can manage things like ventilators and oxygen to take care of all the beds that are open now. That is really the hardest part about where we are today. Judy where do you go for those skilled workers . Where do you find them . Dr. Comptonphillips everything from seeing if people who have recently retired are willing to come back in, even nurses who travel and help out where we need help temporarily, with new infections they are all taken. We dont have them anymore. We are turning into people who previously worked outside of an icu system and rapidly getting them trained to work in an icu setting. You see Telehealth Services to make it so icu doctors that are in short supply can cover for other doctors who are covering icu beds now with consultation. They are helping monit icus. We are really tryingo rapidly scale up the human teams we need to take care of all these patients. Like you said in your opening, what we are worrying about is, if this continues, we are going to run out. It is painful. As a clinician, you dont want to let people die when things are preventable, because you did not have enough of something. This is really outside the balance of what we are used to experiencing. Judy what sort of strain has this put on your people, the people who work with you to take care of these patients . Dr. Comptonphillips enormous strains. We have had several of our own caregivers it is hard to care about it is hard to talk about commit suicide. It is the stress and the strain. We have not had anything remotely like that in the past. The rates of burnout are going up dramatically because of the workload. Not only the workload, but the incredible challenge of seeing so many sick people that dont need to be there. We have offered services to help our own employees, everything from meditation apps on demand, middle health care, ondemand counseling and we have had over 15,000 of our employees take advantage of the services, over half of whom need telespiritual help. This has been a shot to the soul. People going to health care because they care about human beings. This is tearing at the people who are caring for the patients. Judy so hard to hear this. Dr. Comptonphillips, what do you need in order to get through this . Clearly, you need people to try to avoid getting stick to the extent that you can. What do you need to support the demand that is coming . Dr. Comptonphillips we need people to help. Dr. Redfield just said on your earlier opening segment that we do not have to get to a worse case scenario. The way we avoid that worstcase scenario is people doing the things they are so sick and tired of doing wearing the masks, minimizing social contact outside your bubble, staying home, staying apart. Right now, over the holidays, like we saw on thanksgiving, were people checked the mask and went traveling business is coming. We are used to being around family and loved ones. If we do what we have always done around the holidays, this is going to get so much worse. We need people to stay home. We needed a few more months, and then we can have burn the mask parties in the summer. But for now, please stay home. Your life depends on it. Judy dr. Amy compton phillips, chief medical officer with the providence Health Care System. We wish you the best, you and l your colleagues. Thank you. Stephanie im stephanie sy with newshour west. We will return to Judy Woodruff and the full program after the latest headlines. New unemployment numbers underscored, again, the pandemics economic damage. Another 712,000 people filed for jobless benefits last week. That was down from the week before, but its still triple the average total before the virus hit. Momentum is building for a new, Economic Relief measure in washington before congress quits for the year. President trump said today he would support a bill, and Democratic Leaders in the u. S. House of representatives voiced optimism. The bipartisan Problem Solvers Group in the house including virginia democrat Abigail Spanberger urged action now. Rep. Spanberger congress damn well better come together and deliver the relief that is so necessary. Frankly, relief that was necessary weeks and months ago. But today is just as good a day as any to actually see it through. Stephanie congress top democrat, House Speaker nancy pelosi, and the senates republican majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell, spoke today about a stimulus bill. And several more republican senators came out for a bipartisan, 900 billion measure. Judy speaks with utah republican senator mitt romney in a few minutes. The nations foremost Infectious Disease expert, dr. Anthony fauci, says he will stay on at the National Institutes of health and he will serve as the biden administrations chief medical adviser on the pandemic. Also today, president elect biden named brian deese to head the National Economic council. Deese worked in the obama administration, and helped craft the Auto Industry bailout. President trump refused to say today if attorney general wlliam william barr still has his confidence. Instead, he told a reporter, ask me in a number of weeks. On tuesday, barr said theres that neither the u. S. Attorneys nor the fbi looking into the election found evidence of widespread election fraud, as the president claims. Today, mr. Trump said barr needs to keep searching. Pres. Trump they havent looked very hard, which is a disappointment, to be honest, because its massive fraud. This is not civil. He thought it was civil. This is not civil, this is criminal stuff. This is very bad criminal stuff. Stephanie meanwhile, the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to hear the president s challenge to 220,000 ballots. He lost the state by just under 21,000 votes. The Trump Campaign is pursuing a the wildfire season road back to life, leading to evacuations and injuries. Wind gusts turned a house fir into an 11 squaremile inferno in Orange County even as Electrical Companies shut off power to tens of thousands of residents. Two firefighters were hospitalized with injuries. China and the United States clashed today on 2 fronts. The u. S. State department imposed tough new restrictions on Chinese CommunistParty Members and their families coming to the u. S. For extended stays. Beijing blamed what it called extreme antichina forces. Later in the program, we will look at a u. S. Ban on cotton imports from xinjiang province. Back in this country, the u. S. Supreme Court Ordered a lower court to reconsider covid19 curbs on religious services in california. It could lead to throwing out the restrictions. Last week, the High Court Ruled against similar limits in new york state. Still to come, how, harris is making history as madame Vice President elect. The human cost of chinas economic rise, and much more. This is the pbs newshour from washington, and in the west from the Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. Judy as we reported earlier, with only a handful of weeks left in the year, support is growing in congress for a nearly trilliondollar covid Economic Relief bill. If passed, it would extend aid for Small Businesses, Unemployment Benefits and provide extra funding for state and local governments. Utah republican mitt romney is one of the senators backing the bipartisan negotiations, and he joins me now. Senator, thank you so much for being here. Before i get to that, i want to ask you about these grim new numbers about covid. Off the charts in terms of number of cases, hospitalizations, number of deaths. What should have been done at e very top of the federal government to keep things from getting this bad . Sen. Romney it would have helped if there had been communication from the beginning that this is very serious and we should take every action we possibly could to reduce the spread, including wearing masks. The idea that that became political, were some republicans in red states felt that masks were impinging on their liberty that was the wrong way to go. That is one of the things that contributed to the Record Number of deaths and hospitalizations you are seeing today. Judy President Trump from the beginning did not send a clear signal about what people should do. Sen. Romney i think that was unfortunate. I dont know what i would have done in that situation. I can tell you the communication has been mixed. It has been unclear. People have been confused. The result has been a number of folks have taken actions which have spread the virus. The result is we are seeing Record Numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, and a number of new cases. It is really inexcusable. Judy given how bad things are, everybody looking to congress to see if there will be Economic Relief around all this. Has there been serious progress on these bipartisan negotiations . Do you think legislation will pass . Sen. Romney i think there will be a relief measure. I cannot tell you exactly what it will look like. Emma kratz and republicans have negotiated a package. Nancy pelosi a couple of weeks ago was saying it is 2 trillion or nothing, we are down to 908 billion on a bipartisan basis. Either that bill will pass, or portions of it will be taken by speaker pelosi, Mitch McconnellMitch Mcconnell, chuck schumer, and others, and put together in an omnibus package. I think you will see relief for a Small Business program for unemployment. These measures have to be included, as well as vaccine distribution. Food security has to be provided. These are elements that are part of the package and i think they will make it through congress. Judy we have heard speaker pelosind senator schumer say they are on board with this bipartisan plan, that they are prepared to negotiate. What about majority leader mcconnell, who has not indicated he is onrdrd yet . Sen. Romney i cannot speak to the majority leader, but he asks us to describe a remeasure in some detail. Whether he accepts it in whole or negotiates with the speaker in the minority leader to select certain portions of it and include that in an omnibus bill, that is for him to decide. But we have clearly negotiated a measure which does address the challenges that Many Americans are feeling. I think given the number of people suffering from covid right now, it is important that we move it before the end of the year. Judy what is the majority leader pushing for . We gnocchi is concerned about Liability Protections for business owners. Is that Worth Holding up agreement on this over . Sen. Romney i think the republican side, not just the leader, but the republicans generally, a very concerned about sending a bunch of money to states and localities that might use the money ineffectively, inefficiently. At the same time, they want to make sure that schools are not sued, hospitals, universities, Small Businesses, because people get covid. So there is a trait here. We are going to give some help to cities and states, but at the same time, you have got to give us protection from all those enemies all those entities that are going to get held up in lawsuits and slow down the economy for heaven knows how long. Judy as we know, congress is supposed to go home in a little over a week. Congress has this to get done. Also looking at funding the government, Defense Authorization bill. And yet the senate has gone home. Shouldnt the senate be back in session to get this done . Sen. Romney negotiations are ongoing. We have met seval times today. We are going to meet again tomorrow. We will meet over the weekend. Officially, votes are not being taken, but senators are working on this compromise day and night. Our staff is putting together language that reflects the agreements we are coming to. We are going through some of the detail on the overall package. Precisely what are the Liability Protections going to look like . How do we decide which localities are eligible . All of these details are being negotiated. We are drafting language. We are going full speed ahead. There is nothing slowing down because votes are not being held on the floor. What we are ready to get a vote. We will get it. Judy you know very well President Trump continues to insist the election was stolen from him, that there was massive fraud. He continues to state that today. We heard Elections Officials in the state of georgia plead with the president to stop this, because we now see threats being made on Election Officials at every wrecker at every level of the country. He also said republicans who dont stand up to the president on this are complicit. Is he right . Sen. Romney i think it is very important that the rhetoric be tuned down. It is totally appropriate for the president to seek Legal Recourse and to present what evidence he has. But so far every court has said there is nothing there. Even the attorney general has said there is no t